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Crystal

Semi-Modular Synth Plugin by Green Oak
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Crystal has an average user rating of 4.42 from 26 reviews

Rate & Review Crystal

User Reviews by KVR Members for Crystal

Crystal

Reviewed By x_bruce [all]
May 28th, 2002
Version reviewed: 2.1 on Windows

Updated 1.7.03

Crystal, an already feature laden freeware synth has developed a lot in one version. 2.1 finds wavesequencing and sample loading. The later enables some warmth that is missing using the highly flexible synth engine. The well designed (though sometimes cluttered feeling) interface is easier to program than it might first appear.

Eight stage drawable envelopes with multiple lines and curves make for some fantastic modulations and modulations are a key here. Almost anything can be modulated, one voice can sound huge. You get up to three voices per patch so it is possible to do things that were impossible prior to (you guessed it) Absynth.

For pads Crystal is a monster as is it's CPU load. Beyond pads Crystal works well for leads although I personally don't use it for bass oriented sounds.

I find myself using Crystal mostly for ambient effects, pads and evolving, twisting mono synth lines.

For free there is nothing in it's class. It is of terrific value for all the things it does. The sound is of high quality and useful in many compositional styles. Slowly Crystal is becoming an alternative to synths like Absynth and shareware synths that while taking a different approach are not a lot further ahead on the technology curve.

Crystal is a synth worth paying for which makes it all the more astonishing that it is free. It is robust, has yet to crash in Cubase 5.1 or Orion Platinum and fits well in the kind of music I work with. If it doesn't fit for you add a sample and start creating.

Check out Crystal, the presets are excelent examples of what can be done with it. Other than the time to download and install you have nothing to lose and quite possibly you'll be amazed.

Performance improves substantially with a faster CPU but even as a monophonic synth there are timbres that can fill almost an entire mix.

Crystal is a must have synth
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Comments & Discussion for Green Oak Crystal

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Mmmr
Mmmr
27 August 2021 at 9:32am

Can't import Crystal's effects banks or contact the developer (Grrr at Facebook).

Hi. Bit of a story. Back in the day, I got Crystal from a ComputerMusic CD and messed around with it a bit. Time has moved on and last year sometime I bought Jbridge to use a different VST. Recently, I went through the old discs from ComputerMusic and started bridging the old 32-bit plugins (God this was fun). I made a project in Ableton Live yesterday where a spreadsheet I have that lists all installed VSTs and VSTis throws up random plugins for me to use in whatever project I'm working in. It threw up the bridged version of Crystal. I was totally confused on how to use it (as it's been a lot of years since I did use it) but got it working. After the project was finished, mixed and exported I thought I'd see if there were any tutorials. There were so I spent some time last night watching videos. It then occurred to me that there may be a current version. And, Hey Presto, there was. I downloaded and installed this and it seems to work fine apart from one thing. From the Greenoaks website for Crystal there are a load of banks to download and so, download them I did. I followed the instructions on the site to install them but they appear to be uninstallable. I've googled this and it seems to be something to do with Windows 10 security features (I'm not a hundred percent sure though). Anyway, I thought "Hey, I'll contact the developers and tell them about this". The only contact is via Facebook. As an old man of 53 I seriously don't ever want a Facebook account. I've had friends promote it to me on so many occasions not realizing that all the points they're making about how good it is are all the points that make me NEVER to want to have it. So, as a last resort, I thought I'd post on here and see if anyone has any ideas about working around the problem of importing the preset banks as the drop in the application doesn't work at all.

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